February 23, 2003. Ghosts: Hydrants, and light posts, and stop signs!

If you want to see photos of four-way, non-adjustable signal heads, GE single-face clusters, or art deco beauties (pictured left), then visit one of my favorite Baltimore photo sites: B-More Ghosts.

The site's creator is Adam Paul, a young man who drives an MTA bus, which obviously gives him just the right vantage for photographing street lights and such.

Adam is interested in traces of the past that most of us never notice. In his words,

"There's something pretty intriguing about coming across a sign of long-gone civilization. Be it an old street, stoplight, building, or trace of something long ago removed and forgotten, these artifacts help one to marvel and ponder the ways and days of years passed."

Damn those homophones.

Adam has said he's a "completest" with a need to record, say, every known kind of Baltimore manhole cover. What makes people collect things? Freud says potty training. Others relate it to the need for control, a sense of ownership. At any rate, it does seem to be a male phenomenon. Well, yeah, I know. There was Imelda. . .

B-More Ghosts. Check it out!

February 21, 2003: Fire and Ice

Look outside your window and then step through the looking glass into the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1904. For the very best photographs, go to American Treasures of the Library of Congress. There you'll find photographs that will ... but, see for yourself. You’ll stay a while at this site.

Wednesday, February 19, 2003: Rome on the Patapsco

If you have never seen the Curtis Bay Water Tower, then you need to get in your car right now and drive south.

Every time I go there I think about the builder, Frank O. Heyder, a City engineer with an obvious love for antiquity. Over 20 colors of brick create the beautifully shaded effect. It must have been his One Greatest Thing.

Not only is the water tower a wonder, but from the top of the hill, you can see the bay, the harbor, ships, factories, and the sturdy rows crawling up the hills of this traditional blue-collar community.

The Images of Curtis Bay website has vintage photographs the tower and of the Curtis Bay community.

February 16, 2003: Murals

Because writing this much html has taken hours and hours, this entry will be a quickie. The City of Baltimore website devotes a page to outdoor art including beautiful photos of city murals.
Baltimore Mural Project

And here's a link to a great City Paper article by Tom Chalkley on some of the artists involved in the project.
The Big Picture

February 16, 2003: Cator Prints

How do we learn about a long-ago time and place? Of course we read the written accounts of the time, but we can also learn to "read" pictures, as well. Before the camera was the paint brush, the stylus, the knife, the wood block, the copper plate, the silk screen. The Cator Collection of Baltimore Views, housed in the Enoch Pratt Free Library's State Library Resource Center, includes almost 200 paintings, etchings, engravings, lithographs,and other prints.

From the collection, donated to the Library by George Cator, one can trace the history of Baltimore from 1752 to 1930. Here's the modern miracle: these works or art and historical sources have been DIGITIZED!, and if you are like me, you will spend hours and hours studying each one, yes?

Just to give you the flavor, here are views from what is now Federal Hill, created in 1752, 1834, and 1924. What can you learn about Baltimore's history from these works? (Click for enlarged view.

Left top, acquatint, John Moale, 1752; Right top, acquatint, Louis Gamerey, 1834; Left bottom, etching, Leon Dolice, 1924.Images from the Enoch Pratt Free Library.